Evidence-based SEL program: Programs grounded in research and principles of child and adolescent development, and scientifically evaluated and shown to produce positive student outcomes. CASEL identifies high-quality evidence-based programs as those that are well-designed to systematically promote students’ social and emotional competence, provide opportunities for practice, offer multi-year programming, and provide high-quality training and ongoing implementation support. School Guide + Program Guide
Align schoolwide systems, policies, programs, and practices to promote SEL for students.
Continuously Improve Schoolwide SEL Implementation
Use the PDSA cycle to drive high-quality schoolwide SEL implementation.
Connect and Collaborate Among Staff
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Create meaningful partnership opportunities and two-way communication that invites families to understand, experience, inform, and support the social and emotional development of their students.
Belonging and Emotional Safety
When teachers build the structures that support belonging and emotional safety, they lay the groundwork for students to focus on learning (Sergiovanni, 1994 in Darling-Hammond et al., 2017).
Explicit SEL instruction refers to consistent opportunities for students to cultivate, practice, and reflect on social and emotional competencies in ways that are developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive.
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Set goals and action steps to promote SEL for students
The core of SEL implementation is promoting students’ social and emotional learning throughout the school day and in partnership with families and communities. Because student learning is influenced by their interactions across many relationships and environments, promoting student SEL requires thoughtful coordination of strategies across the settings where students live and learn.
While your team works to align school discipline policies to SEL, it’s important to ensure that all classrooms consistently reinforce a student-centered approach to discipline.
Build on Strengths and Experience
Schools, like the greater society, are becoming increasingly more diverse in culture, ethnicity, race, language, values, and beliefs. This diversity has countless positive benefits, but it can also present challenges.